Kananaskis rally 2010

Nice weather (but with some chances of rain/snow later), nice roads, 17 rally cars and friends. Should be a great day!

Photo by Evan Jones

This time we have a lot of video materials, thanks to cameragirl and crew.

Note: videos show just part of these long stages.

Video Part 1 (stages 1-4)

I was the only one with winter tires. I thought there may be some frozen parts of the road in the morning and did not check that every other driver choose gravel tires. I was wrong. But still it was a fun :) and we did not loose too much time on these short stages: got 7th time here, just 2 seconds behind 6th place.

Video Part 2

Now I have gravel tires and 2 long stages (24km each) plus 2 short stages to go in this section. Stages are very nice, experienced drivers can drive here very fast but its very demanding for good notes and good work from co-driver. A lot of turns over crests or right after crests, jumps. So you have to handle car properly before such corners/jumps 100% relaying on co-driver notes.

Fortunately co-driver did a great job today (missed correct places just couple times and found right notes quickly). So often I trust notes and drive like rally driver should, e.g. jump over crest sideways. You have to do this when there is corner over crest. And its a lot of fun :)

 Winner of the rally (JC)

Our little car

Tibor on Celica GT4 crashed/rolled while flew thru finish line (stage 5) but did not lose a second because went thru finish and then stopped. Then he put car on its wheels and continue rally!

Video Part 3

Here you may see mistake from co-driver + my mistake around 4:00. Co-driver did not tell me about L5- after jump (I ask several times - what's after jump?)

My mistake: I left throttle. Now I think I should brake shortly only on the crest and use more throttle and less steering right after crest. Not sure this could help because you should steer before jump, there is no traction after jump..

Fortunately we did not crash :)

Video Part 4 (with music)

Last 2 long stages to go. Sunset is coming, fortunately I was thinking about delays and brought extra lamps. Check what cool lamps some guys have.
Look at damaged Celica GT4, it still goes a little bit faster then we do!

There is no in-car video from last stage. I tried to drive more carefully because its last stage of the rally and we had enough fun for today and now its important to finish rally with car in perfect shape. Plus dust from previous car makes more problems at night, sometimes you just don't see anything.
However we were driving very sideways thru some corners, I assume some places without gravel but with dirt was frozen after sunset.

  Marshals at work

 Hard working support crew

We took solid 7th place overall (2nd place among novice drivers):

- 6th place (Celica GT4) 1.17:33

- our time (1995 STI) 1.19:38

- 8th palce (1992 STI) 1.24:54

JC took 1st place (white STI with red leafs) 1.12:13.

He is novice as well, just 2nd year in rally! And note: no one from experienced drivers crashed (I think they know these roads like own backyard). Well Tibor crashed but he flew thru finish line and did not lose a second in the stage.

So it was great day for us :-)

But 3 teams were not able to finish this rally :-(

Our car works fine, handles pretty good in corners but I still think I need to adjust wheel alignment somehow, probably increase rear toe... Car does not have stability in straight lines on loose gravel, that's why I did not drive over 130km/h while other drivers hit 160-180 on straight lines.

Pacific Forest Rally 2010 (PFR 2010)

We came to our 2nd rally and this is national event again. 

So our little car was lost again between cool professional guys. 

No problem this time - I put couple stripes on my car so now it looks like rally machine as well ;-)

H'm, but how to adjust my struts and make some rally wheel alignment? I have no idea :-(

On the other hand I drove my car over 700 km from home to Merritt without problems, my car has muffler! so actually its luxury car :-)

What is really really good - there is no rain in Merritt!! I can't believe I will be driving on dry gravel! Finally.

H'm, recce shows that some stages here are scary even without rain. Princenton Cutoff Road is very tight, has some rocks and big cliffs. In some places you cannot make any mistake at all. If you move just 50cm from the line, you will need to make new car.

Another possible problem - if my driving or road itself will scary my co-driver, she may lose notes.

Nicola stage is nice and fast but has some places with rocks that can hurt my little car and its difficult for novice co-drivers. If you lose notes here, its hard to find right spot again because all corners look similar, a lot of Left 5 - Right 5 sections. So yes, we were lost and could not find the spot because corners are pretty similar and I could not check odometer (partly because we did not make many marks, partly because its hard to see odometer at night at high speed in shaking car).

We definitely need rally computer...

Comstock South? Its nice and interesting stage with 1 asphalt section but there are some rocks as well.

Dillard, Missezula, Helmer Lake - very nice stages. I love them: no huge rocks, a lot of different corners in various combinations: corners before crests, corners after crests, corners on crests. Nice.

Unfortunately we did not have time for 2 recces on long Helmer Lake stage (23km) and we had to stop sometimes to allow fast cars (that was going these recce 2nd time on higher speed) to pass us. So I am sure we made some mistakes in the notes :-(

Ok, lets roll. Friday evening, we have 5 stages in Nikola and Princenton Cutoff Road and I do not have any intention to push hard on these stages at night. Better I preserve my car for long Saturday race.

So I drove carefully tried to avoid all rocks and cliffs and I think I was right. How many cars had problems within 2 hours? Runamuck Rally team rolled car on its side in front of us, several Subarus had problems as well: damaged tire, broken suspension, etc. Everybody are fine but time was lost and teams need more money to fix cars and that part sometimes is most difficult part in rally.

Saturday. What a nice warm day, good for spectators and for competitors. Now I am ready to push harder on smooth roads. Just need good notes.

Ready to start!

1st stage: Dillard

Flight without problems

Video from Dillard

Missezula: 

RRRR... left 5, right 4, left over crest, 50, right 5 over crest into left 5-, 50... NICE! I can do this all day :-)

... right 3.. what "right 3"?? There is some LEFT corner!

While co-driver looking into notes trying to understand what is going on I am entering into Left 5- (or Left 4) and there is that Right 3 on intersection! But its too late.. Brakes! Spin! Where is rear gear in this car?! Ok, just turn aroung and go, go!

Where are the notes?! Left 4. No, its not left, its right. Right 5? Oh, shit, this is Right 3!

Go, go! Then she finally found correct notes and we drove a little bit faster and much more safer.

Wow, that was exciting, again.
Actually it was so exciting that my co-driver wrote a poem and read it instead of pace notes ;-)
See below 

Again we saw triangle, slowed down, made sure racers are Ok and go to the finish. 2 cars slipped off the road and hill on the same corner. One car cut the tree and this tree fell on another car. Cars are significantly damaged, drivers and co-drivers are fine.

2nd time: Dillard.

I checked tire pressure between Dillard and Missezula stages - shit, we have leak. I changed tire between stages, put spare Pirelli while other my tires are Yokohama and went to the stage. Everything looks fine until car reaches about 100 km/h, then left Pirelli tire pushes car to right, twists it harder when we go faster. Why?? Its supposed to be the same size. Ok, go, go!! Everything was fine until I slide more wide than usual in tight corner and said magic phrase "shit, shit, shit" while trying to keep control. Of course, co-driver was interested what is going on and lost notes again :-)

Done, finished stage and may be not bad because I see previous car in stop zone.

Video from Missezula

1st service: today we have a service crew and friends with tea. Nice :-)
So we are changing all tires to Pirelli and checking if everything is Ok with the car. Yes, its fine.

Crazy Leo helped me again. I wanted to adjust my strut settings and I thought I should make them harder on smooth gravel roads while using softer settings for rough stages and very slippery stages like snow and ice. But Leo said I should use softer settings for smooth gravel roads as well. I did, and it works! Probably I need to softer rear struts a little bit more and harden front struts a little bit back.

BTW there is Crazy Leo blog: http://crazyleo.net/

Comstock. I did not push hard on this stage because of some rocks however I missed that invisible R1 corner and I missed it twice. I heard correct notes but you can't see this intersection even if you stop right there because connecting road comes from sharp downhill.
AMR. Very short spectator stage with very slippery gravel mixed with sand and some rocks that come from nowhere (previous cars just dig them out and place on middle of the road). And I stopped here 10 meters before finish! Because car shook during recce and notes were not readable on last corner before finish. Left or righ? There was an intersection right before finish and I was not sure which way to go. Shit :-(

Finally: Helmer. Very nice long stage but we do not have very good notes here, just 1 pass on recce. Yes, notes were lost again despite pretty distinctive 3 Left3 corners. But we drove well here, probably got close to previous car when finally found notes and drove in clouds of dust.

(c) Thumphoto

1st pass on Helmer - dust and sun

2nd pass - dust and high beam lights

No visibility in the corners? This is rallying!

(www.rallysport.ca)

Results: 10th place.
I drove slowly on Comstock tried to preserve car on rocky stages, I drove without notes some sections on most of stages, I stopped 10 meters before finish on AMR (because was not sure which way to go), I span twice but somehow we got 10th place in regional! I was gentle to the car and it brought us to the finish and then home :-)

Video: SS15 - Helmer

BTW: My best times were on Helmer1 and Helmer2 where we drove in dust. On Helmer1 we drove without notes for about 5km (see video) but we still had 10th time. On Helmer2 I stopped right on spectators section because some spectator turned powerful lamp on and I thought this is car in front of me span or had an accident. Then we drove without maps for about 3 km, then we got closer to another car and was sliding through corners in dust. Sometimes I have not seen anything and drove on notes only! That's when I felt I was not real rally driver until now (interesting what I would think after my 10th rally?). Then I made mistake and spin. But despite all this we set 8th best time on this stage!

Crazy Leo got 3rd place in national, driving last 2 stages damaged car. Cool!

 

 Thanks to friends and spectators for nice pictures :-)

Short video from congealedmeat (SS10-Missezula)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5KUfxSGsOE 

Not related to this rally but IMHO the best rally tribute video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSGhWfkxxk

Poem from co-driver

(sorry, cannot translate it well)

Поворот, поворот

И опять по газам

Шум в заносе колес, рев мотора

Поворот не дает отдохнуть тормозам

Ну а я посылаю хвалу небесам

(и это вместо того чтоб читать легенду! прим. драйвера)

И опять поворот

И опять по газам

В клубе пыли призрак дороги

Ты несешься вперед не зная что там

Я сжимаюсь в комок алегорий

И опять поворот

И опять по газам

И опять нецензурное слово 

(а шо делать?! прим. драйвера)

Камень, слева обрыв

Но ты держишь штурвал 

И тебе покорилась дорога

Test day

Thanks to organizer from CSCC we got 1 training day. Its short road but its fine for me.
Unfortunately rain start this day as well. Will I ever drive on dry gravel??

1st laps was good then road become more slippery so you may see my mistake that lead to spin. On that spin I bent my skid plate and could not cut corners in usual way so I slow down on corners. Then another off road ride bent skid plate even more so we have to go home fix this issue and redesign skid plate a little bit.

Rocky Mountain Rally 2010 (RMR)

I got rally RS&SP struts just 1 day before rally, installed them in the morning and without any testing go to the stages of my 1st real rally ever.

That's how rally car looks from below

Are we really ready? No time to test and adjust struts? No service crew? Just 1 spare tire?

Who cares.. what is important - red suit looks nice with white car ;-)

3 short Friday stages was easy task. Well, co-driver lost on 1st stage. I told her - I will drive faster on rally stages than on public roads, you better be ready for this. Co-driver on 2nd and 3rd stages was better but road became more slippery because of rain that helps to transform gravel road into mud. Looks like gravel tires does not work on mud, well everybody told me this before.

Lets hope it will be more dry road on long Saturday stages...

Yeah, right! When we came to service area there was some clean grass (its May 29) but according to information from other drivers there are 30cm or more snow on the stages. Mud covered with snow? I hate this.

May 29, 2010

BTW: Where is my crew?? Its turned out they went to stages instead of service area, yes I know they want to be rally drivers as well but I need my tires!
Ok, crew arrived 10 minutes before my check-in time on 1st stage. What to do with tires? Put some mud or snow tires? What is the difference if we have neither?!

Fortunately I met Crazy Leo, he said - there is Yokohama trailer right here, they sell and mount tires, take snow tires, don't use gravel! Ok, $1,000 more or less, anyway I already spent a lot.

BTW: Crazy Leo cool guy, I saw videos of his car on youtube... but we don't have time to talk, I have to mount and change tires within minutes!



Ok, there are just minutes to start, I am sitting in the car, buckled up, helmet on, wired, engine started while crew changing tires.
Car dropped on the ground and I went the same second! Is this Formula 1?

Rally.. well I spoke too much to co-driver arguing about readings and lost track on 1st stage. Lost truck just a little bit and then lost about 8 minutes in deep snow. Co-driver could not open door so I gave triangle to marshal, rope to spectators and tried to dig snow by myself. Thank to spectators and marshals and co-driver that lost polished fingernails trying to pull the car.!

No, this is another corner on this picture. But I missed it a little bit as well :-(
Due to a lot of snow rally organizers had to change route and make 1 stage from pieces of 2 other stages, we forgot to add 1 extra "right 2" before rally (remember tires), then we did not add this corner because I was driving without intercom and only on 3rd pass we had this corner in place. 

Then I jump in the car and go but I did not connect intercom to my helmet thinking I can do this on the way. But I could not find that wire for a minute driving slowly through corners. So I gave up and drove like crazy hearing just some notes from co-driver that screamed trying to reach me thru helmet. Almost went off road 3 or 4 times while co-driver lost her voice at the end of stage. That's was fun!

 

snow and mud, mud and snow 

 

1st service. No, I am not saying something like - lets increase bound in front struts and decrease rebound in rear struts. I don't know what to do with my struts yet. Need to read some books before.
I just saying how its amazing and how crazy to drive on snow over mud. How we get out of deep snow. How much better I feel car on new struts when its driving 120km/h in ruts...

\

Quick check between stages. Snacks and tea. Well, may be it was too much after sleepless night. 1st stage after service I was driving slowly, just wanted to sleep.

 

It was pretty difficult but relatively slow rally. Recce was made several days ago on dry road and now some notes do not make any sense, snowfall changed everything. There is no sense to "keep right" or "keep left" anymore, choose trajectory and so on. You just drive in track, muddy track in deep snow and trying not to lose this track. When you loose it just a little bit, car hits snow and tries to go sideways so you push it back into track.

I don't have any idea how RWD cars (there are some Toyotas) are driving is this condition but they are driving and driving fast. I think its more easy to drive FWD here however FWD Golfs were out of road several times as well.

Amazingly, every car finished this rally! Some with minor damage. While 2(?) years ago 11 cars did not finish (it was rainy but no snow that time)

No, of course we are not on the podium.
We took 12th place (20 cars in regional class). If not that stupid simple mistake on 1st stage and a lot of time lost in deep snow, we could be in top 10. That's rally - if you want to be faster, don't make any mistakes.

But it does not matter now. We did this! We finished our 1st rally despite crazy road conditions. Am I a real rally driver now? Sure! At least I feel like real rally driver, I drove over crests and blind corners sometimes 120 km/h listening to notes. I am almost cool as Sebastien Loeb ;-) Ha, ha.

Thanks to the team and co-driver who pushed me to complete my dream!

PS
Some video here
RMR 2010 part 1/3

My 1st rally car

I got this "new" car from Japan. Its 15 years old but just 49,000km, no rust, no problems, under hood it looks like its 3-5 year old car, not a 15.
As you may see this is Subaru Impreza GC8 but its not just Impreza and not just WRX. This is Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type-RA, almost Colin McRay's car ;-) This car was born for rally and finally after 15 year of waiting it will go for rally.

But 1st I need to prepare car for real rally: weld roll cage, put FIA approved seats, 6-point harness, skid plates to protect engine and rear diff, install fire extinguishers, hooks for puling...
Hey I found some nice Team Dynamics rims for the car ;-) but we don't have asphalt rally here :-(

so, I need to install gravel struts from RS&SP. Everybody says RS&SP is good and strong. But they are not cheap so I ordered the cheapest struts directly from Argentine. These struts are 1-way adjustable (you can adjust bound and rebound at once, not separately).
Question is - what exactly settings should I use? Softer? Harder? No place to test, no time to test - struts came 1 day before my 1st rally.
What's good, they allow to adjust height of the car as well, so now I can put gravel tires and drive on some rough roads.

I added PIAA lights for 2nd rally with night stages. 85W bulbs are really bright but lamps produce very narrow beam, I would prefer a little more wide pattern...
Ordered stock fog lamps as well. They will not produce much light but car looks much better. As usually they came 10 minutes before I was leaving for 2nd rally.

Rally car should have decals. But no sponsors yet :-(
So I put some home-made stripes. Looks good?



Ready to start!